Thatscricket - News - Bitter end to Windies tour: Black assaulted

Melbourne: West Indies fast bowler Marlon Black was viciously beaten with a wooden club in an attack outside a Melbourne night club early on Sunday, team manager Ricky Skerritt said on Monday.Skerrit said two players escaped but Black was knocked down by a car and attacked by four men. Black, who needed 10 stitches for a cut to the head, was expected to return to the Caribbean with his team-mates later on Monday."He is in great pain and discomfort and feels very depressed about the whole incident," Skerritt said.The three players were leaving the night club about 4.00 am on Sunday after celebrating the end of their three-and-a-half-month tour of Australia.Black exchanged words with four men he had spotted smashing bottles on the road and Skerritt said it appeared the men jumped in a car to follow the cricketers, who tried to run away.The car knocked down Black and the men jumped out, kicking and punching the bowler, and assaulting him with at least one wooden club.Police called to the scene found Black semi-conscious. "Marlon was an innocent victim," Skerritt said."He went out to have a little party on his last night in Australia and he comes out of a night club at 4.00 am and this happens."Skerritt said there was no evidence Black's attackers knew he was a member of the West Indian team. "It's a bitter end (to the tour)," he added."We've had excellent hospitality and goodwill from the Australian people through this tour. We're a young team in transition and we haven't done very well on the field. It's certainly not the way anybody wanted this tour to end."Police would not confirm Black had been attacked but said they were investigating allegations of assault after an attack outside a night club."One man was assaulted and received treatment at the scene before being taken to hospital for minor injuries," a police spokesman said.Copyright AFP 2000